20 degrees, feels like 10 with a winter storm possible

Winter keeps coming back like a bad penny. The only really nice thing about the chilly temperatures is that I can get the pond digger to be the household handyman and painter. Once the good weather comes back, he’s pretty much outside for good. In between doing random tasks around the house, he has been planning and ordering things for the new lower pond. It’s a good thought to have all the items you need in place as soon as the weather allows for outdoor work.

Remember this little photo from last spring? The caption talks about the pipework looking neater and I thought that it was going to be the end product.

Better looking ductwork …upper right photo taken in May 2015 and the lower right photo taken about 6 weeks later in 2015….thinking the 2016 arrangement is most likely going to remain 😉

Surprise, surprise – the pipework is not meeting the 2017 standards. The pond digger has also decided that the gate valves are not the best option. I think he mentioned that they could be difficult to open/shut…maybe he just didn’t like how they looked. So the other day, a rather large FedEx box lands in our garage. Two new manifolds from Sacramento Koi. Just a little shout out to Sacramento Koi, they have a lot of nice information on their website about building a pond and they’re very helpful.

new manifolds for the ponds from Sacramento Koiaccording to my pond digger, ball valves are in and gate valves are out — if anyone wants to buy some used 4″ gate valves cheap, let me know…

The new filtration system will be delivered some time over the next few weeks. It’s another Profidrum, but this time it’s the CombiBio 30. The new ProfiDrum dealer is Koi Acres in Scandia, Minnesota. HOW CONVENIENT! I have the cutest koi couple, Devin and Mikki Swanson of Koi Acres — and there’s Mike Swanson for the equipment side at Koi Acres. If you have a koi pond in Minnesota, it’s kind of nice to be within an hour’s drive of koi and pond expertise.

Last year, we installed a new ProfiDrum Eco 55/40 RDF. Once again, check out the photo below, I thought we were done playing with the filtration system. The new ProfiDrum CombiBio 30 will look better according to the pond digger.

Still indoors the koi are pretty happy and begging for food more often. The water temperature is holding around 55-57 degrees. I’m continuing to feed the koi Kenzen Primary and they are doing well. There are many good brands of koi food out there and I’ve actually tried a few of them. My koi seem to like Kenzen and since they are growing well, I don’t really see a pressing need to switch up their food. I have often tried to get them to eat other things like grapefruit, watermelon and real lettuce – no luck. Little dried shrimps go over well though.

Hoping to be fed…

Daylight saving time starts tomorrow and spring really is not too far away. In about 30 days I have a koi or two that I bought last year through GenkiKoi flying home. And I’m looking forward to seeing what Koi Acres might have for me this spring. Definitely working on keeping the koi purchases on some type of reasonable budget since pond equipment does not run cheap. Being a member of the koi club is nice because we were able to sell our ProfiDrum Eco 55/40 to another club member. We certainly don’t mind giving a good deal to friends and he’s going to love the significantly reduced maintenance – cleaning all those brush filters, matala filters and skimmer baskets is totally un-fun.

Nothing else very exciting happening in little Siberia. I’m enjoying seeing all the Facebook posts of friends attending the Koi Show in Orlando – 75 degree weather sounds pretty good to me! I was hoping to make it out to the NorCal ZNA show in April but the flights and a trade show (for work) schedule just couldn’t make it happen. Still have the Greater Louisville Koi Show penciled in my calendar over Memorial Day weekend but that may or may not happen. Koi shows are nice because you get to see some really beautiful koi and you get to meet all the crazy koi folks that you see on social media. Pond digger and I are just a little crazy when it comes to koi.

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About me…

I grew up in Southern California and graduated from the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 1982. I was commissioned a military intelligence officer and served with XVIII ABN Corps (Fort Bragg, NC), 82d ABN Div (Fort Bragg, NC) and 42d FA Bde (Germany). I hold a master's degree in early childhood special education and an administrative endorsement in educational supervision.

I moved to Minnesota in 2010 and married a man who happens to enjoy digging holes and constructing waterfalls. I envision that every spring and summer will be spent puttering around a koi pond. Aside from koi, I enjoy starting random hobbies (trapeze lessons, pottery, sumi-e), gardening, reading a good book, drinking tea and a thousand other things that won't fit into this text box.

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